Back when safety glasses and welding gloves were for sissies! Also, remember the simulated people in the early computer games? Apparently, people used to actually look like that! I'm also not sure how the boy on the left gets his right hand to hold the tongs like that.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Twenty or so years ago the TTC still had PCC street cars running in regular service. I seem to remember a story that they had renovated the old cars at a cost of $450k a piece (cheaper than the $1.25 million for the new models) in the late 1980s. They seemed to disappear from the streets pretty quick after that. I figured this was one of those disposed cars. A quick search revealed the true (somewhat convoluted) story. I would guess that this location was an abandoned plan for a farm stand. To see PCC cars running- or ride on one, the TTC has retained two units (#4500 and 4549) that appear occasionally on the Harbourfront route and the Halton County Radial Railwaymuseum also has a number of them.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

One of Pontiac's showcars from 1954, the Bonneville Special was a two seat sport car powered by a straight 8 engine fed by four 2 barrel carbs. It was Pontiac's answer to the Corvette, but was never put into production.Too bad.

The Stanley Hex-a-Matic. Everybody was trying to cash in on "a-matic" in the Sixties.

Note the nested collets, intended to grip different sizes of nuts or bolt heads:

It was clearly designed to compete with other similar tools like the Ideal Sock-o-Matic wrench featured in a previous blog entry.Here's how Stanley advertised it back in the day:

I've had this tool for ages, and I don't think I've ever used it. It's simply too ungainly, especially for smaller fastener sizes.I usually just grab the standard nut-drivers, even though it means messing around to find the correct one. (See Mister G's previous post on Spintite.)

Monday, January 28, 2013

The Algoma Eastern Railway served the nickel mining industry in and around Sudbury. Along with the ore trade, they apparently they also rented out cabooses to hunters. The picture was taken about 1920 when a license was $2.00 and allowed the taking of two deer. These cabooses (vans in Canada) were homebuilt from boxcars.

The famous modified Honda 450 Racer prepared and offered by Othmar "Marly" Drixl. I wonder how many copies of this frame have been made in recent years for the legions of 350 and 450 Honda vintage racers.http://curtisracingframes.com/road-racing.html

Interesting dedication for an American publication. The Viscount founded the Wakefield Oil Company in 1899, later changing its name to Castrol. I've no idea who Donald S. Bird (with the Maltese Cross) was.

One example of the many aircraft plans included in the book.

Members could even build their own wind tunnels to test their model aircraft!

Among the associated groups, the now-defunct Model Aircraft League of Canada!

The problems of over-worked volunteer newsletter editors goes as far back as this organization!

It's sobering to reflect that this was published in 1938, and a year later Britain was at war. How many of these Canadian and overseas enthusiasts would have soon found themselves in uniform, possibly not to survive the conflict? In fact, members of The Model Aircraft League of Edmonton were instrumental in forming the 12 Edmonton Squadron of Air Cadets in 1941.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Francisco "Paco" Bultó was a director at Montesa Motorcycles when the decision was made to quit racing. In protest he left, and some others who felt the same way urged him to start his own company. So Bultaco was born and in March 1959, the first model was introduced. Here he is in 1973, playing with what was to become one of his favorite models, the Alpina. I could work for a boss like that!

Interesting transitional-stage coal-burning locomotive. The Hiawatha features the well-tracking and soon to be common 4-4-0 wheel arrangement. The engineer sits in his round cab atop the boiler, while the fireman is out on the footplate feeding the firebox without weather protection. The smoke stack still shows wood-burning roots. No brakes on the locomotive yet but it appears the tender does.